Register.



H. A. HENTRICHS.

REGISTER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 25. 1914- v 1,182,482. Patented May 9,1916.

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REGISTER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 25. 1914.

Patented May 9, 1916.

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' REGISTER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 25, 1914.

Patented May 9,1916.

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REGISTER.

' I APPLICATION FILED MAY 25, 1914. 1 182 482. Patented May 9,1916.

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REGISTER.

Specification of Letters Patent. I Patented May 9, 1916.

Application filed May 25, 1914. Serial No. 840,789.

State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Registers, of which the following is a specification, reference beinghad therein to the accompanying drawings.

This inventlon pertains to a system in which there are a plurality ofprimary or local adding and registering machines and a grand-totalizeradding and registering machine. Every primary machine is operable fromany suitable distance to add amounts and register totals, and itincludes means whereby its amounts, along with those of other primarymachines, are caused to be added in the grand totalizer, which 2 showsthe grand total of all primary machines.

The system and the mechanisms included in it may be put to various uses,as, for example, to add and register the values received at theadmission-ticket-selling stations of a base-ball or other amusementpark, at the various ticket-selling stations in an amusement-park, or atthe various selling-stations in department store, and

thus they make available at any time information as to the amount ofsales or values received at every such station and the total of allstations.

The inventiomcontemplates, in both pri mary and grand-totalizermachines, the

provision of means for causing actuation of the registering mechanismsso arranged. as to avoid under registration when initial movements foreffecting registration of a plurality of the same units are madesimultaneously at one or more places; and it provides in a primarymachine means whereby the amounts registered therein are caused also tobe registered in a grand-totalizer machine.

VVhenread in connection with the description herein, the characteristicsof a system and of its component parts as contemplated by the invention,and the improvements made therein by the invention,

will be apparent from the accompanying drawings, forming part hereof,wherein are shown, for purposes of illustration, a system and mechanismsadapted for use in a department store or the like.

While the disclosures herein now are considered to exemplify preferableembodiments of the invention it is to be understood that the inventionis not restricted in its uses or adaptations to those described andshown and that the showing herein may be altered and otherwise adaptedwithin the scope of the claims without necessarily departing from thenature and spirit of the invention.

Like reference-characters refer to corresponding parts in the views ofthe drawings, of which- Figure 1 is a transverse sectionalview through aportion of a primary or local machine; Fig. 2 is a detail view inelevation of a ball-releasing device; Fig. 3 is a detail plan view ofparts of a ball-releasing device; Fig. 4 is a plan view, partly insection and with certain parts omitted, of magazines and other parts,some of which are shown in elevation by Fig. 1; Fig. 5 is a view ofgearing for actuating the chainbelts; Fig. 6 'is a view of guideways asseen when looking in direction of the arrows, Fig. 1, one of theguideways being shown in elevation and the other in section; Fig. 7 is aplan view of an alternative arrangement of ball-channels and releasemechanisms therefor; Fig. 8 is a View in elevation and partly in sectionof parts shown by Fig. 7; Fig. 9 is a rear view, partly in section, of aseries of number-displaying dials and parts associated therewith; Fig.10 is a plan view of parts shown by Fig. 9; Fig. 11 is an enlargedsectional View of parts associated with dials; Fig. 12 is adiagrammaticview of a system contemplated by the invention; and Fig. 13 is a Viewillustrative of the diverse arrangement of teeth of the chain-belts.

For purposes of brevity and clearness, the circuit-closers and the like,the parts whose actuation they institute, and electric conductorsconnecting parts are referred to by the number of units of which it isintended for them to cause registration. For example, forty-unitcircuit, forty-unit conductor, forty-unit magazine, forty-unit channel,forty-unit balls, fforty-unit guideway, and forty-unit star-wheel allrefer to parts contributing to registration of forty units. as fortycents or forty dollars.

In the adaptation of one of the systems herein contemplated as shown byFig. 12 116 as an example, there are a plurality of departments,selling-places, groups, or classes A, B, C, in each of which there areelectric contact keyboards, sets of circuit-closers, or individualcircuit-closers, a, b, 0, d, e, etc., corresponding in number to thenumber of selling or dispensing stations, to the number of clerks orothers, or to the number of places in a group or class at whichregistrations are to be initiated, it being understood that thesekeyboards, sets of circuit-closers, or individual circuit-closers, onlyare exemplary of any suitable circuit-closing'devices, such asmechanisms associated with cash-registers or the ,like. partment, group,or class of circuit-closers at which registrations are to be initiated,

' there is in a central ofiice or the like, which may be located at anypracticable distance,

a primary or local adding and registering machine A, B, or -C, as thecase may be, each of which is connected electrically with, and arrangedto add and register the amounts indicated at the keyboards, sets ofcircuit-closers, or individual circuit-closers of its department, group,or class. Every primary or local machine is connected electrically witha grand-totalizer machine T and arranged to cause to be added andregistered therein the total amounts or values registered.

For all keys or circuit-closers of like -indicating amount of a singledepartment, group, or class, there is in the primary or local machine ofthat department, group, or class, one or more magazines M; and it -maybe assumed, for purposes of explanation, that the magazine at the leftof Fig. 1 pertains to the forty-unit keys or circuitclosers and themagazine at the right of that figure to the one-hundred-unit keys orcircuit-closers, that there are five keyboards or sets ofcircuit-closers in that machines department, group, or class, thatfive-fortyunit electric conductors 40 lead therefrom in circuit todevices associated with the forty-unit magizine, that fiveone-hundredunit electric conductors 100" lead in circuit from thekeyboards or sets of circuit-closers to devices associated with theone-hundredunit magazine, and that conductors similarly lead from allother amount keys or circuit-closers to devices associated with othermagazines in the machine.

In the framework of a primary machine there are mounted near each sidean upper shaft 13 and a lower shaft 14, one of which is a drive-shaft,and on these shafts there is a plurality of sprocket-wheels 15, those ofthe drive-shaft being fast thereon and those of the other shaft beingmounted to rotate'with it if it is rotatable and on it if it is fast.Every sprocket-wheel on an upper shaft is directly above a similar wheelon the shaft below it, and every pair of For every dewheels is engagedby a chain-belt 16, which has bifurcated teeth or other projections 17extending outwardly therefrom at regular intervals. The shafts extendlongitudinally of the machine, and the drive-shafts are so associatedwith each other that they will be rotated synchronously in oppositedirections and move the inside or facing stretches of the chain-beltsupwardly. In the embodiment shown, the lower ones are the driveshafts,and they are rotated constantly and uniformly while the machine is inuse by a main shaft 18 through the instrumentality of gears 19. 5*

One of the magazines M is locatedin the upper ortion of the machineadjacent to every c ain-belt 16, and leading downwardly therefrom thereis a series of channels 20 corresponding in number to the number of keysor circuit-closers of the amount to which the magazine pertains in thedepartment, group, or class. The magazine is arranged to hold and to,feed into its several channels 20 in-series a number ofamountrepresenting and register-actuating elements 21, which preferablyare of spherical form, and which hereinafter are called.

balls.

For every channel there is a solenoid-coil 22, which is in the circuitof the circuitcloser of the amount to which the magazine pertains, andwhich is arranged to actuate a latch to release a ball from the channel.For example, the coils at the left of Fig. 1 are assumed to be connectedeach to a fortyunit conductor, and those at the right of that figureeach to a one-hundred-u'nit con ductor; and, when the circuit in one ofthese conductors is closed at a distant station, a ball will be releasedfrom a fortyunit or a one-hundred-unit channel, as the case may be, andit will be available subse; quently to cause registration of that amountand addition to previously-registered amounts. I

- The latch referred to comprises a substantially vertical rock-shaft23,-hav1ng at its lower end a laterally-extend ng releasearm 24, whichnormally is held in the path of movement of the balls in the channel byf mitted to drop from the channel. Inorder to prevent the release ofmore than one ball when the release-arm 24 has swung to releasingposition, there extends from the shaft 23 a stop-arm 30, which 1sposltioned 1 above the release-arm a distance about equal bottom ball. m

to the diameter of the balls. The stop-arm is capable of swinging intothe path of the balls within the channel, and it is so disposed withrespect to the release-arm that it will swing into the channel under thenext-to-the-bottom ball as the releasearm swings from under and releasesthe A fixed abutment 31 stops ovement of the parts when the stop-arm hasreached holding position. Of course, the circuit is closed for a momentonly; and, when the circuit is opened, the parts will be returned tonormal positionsby the springs, the balls within the channel droppingdown as .the stop-arm moves outwardly thereof and being caught .by thereleasearm as it quickly returns to position in the path of the balls.

When the balls are released from the channels, each representing anamount of the denomination to which its mechanism pertains, as fiveunits, ten units, forty units, one hundred units, and so on, as the casemay be, they drop into a hopper 32 therebelow, from; the bottom of whichleads a chute 33, which is of a size to receive the balls in sequenceand to hold them in series until they are taken up individually andsuccessively the teeth of the chain-belt, as now will be explained Thechute leads at its lower end into the lower end ofa guideway 34, whichextends along the upwardly-moving stretch of the chain-belt, and whichat its upper end project's into and *somewhat above the bottom of themagazine M. The guideway at its bottom has a slot 35 and in its side'abutting the chain-belt a longitudinal slot .36, these slots permittingthe teeth 17 of the chain-belt to pass and extend into the guideway andto move upwardly-there- 7 through. -The guideway is just ofsuflicientsize to permit one ball at a time to pass into it from thechute 33. If ther a ball withinthe guideway at the bottom at a time atooth 17 passes into it during the continuous movement of thechain-belt, it is engaged by the tooth and moved up- 5F wardlythroughthe guideway. to its top,

whence itfalls into the magazine where it again is available to passinto a channel and again be used as just described. If there are otherballs in the chute, andpossibly there may be a numberthere during busytimes, each passeszinto the guideway as the ball preceding it ismovedupwardly, and it is moved upwardly by the. succeeding tooth of thechain-belt when it reaches ball-engaging position. Thus all balls asthey are dropped into the hopper andpass to the chute successively aremoved upwardly through the guideway by the beltteeth and returned to.the magazine, and no matter how many balls simultaneously may bedropped into the hopper, each is carried separately through the guidewayend of the guideway and curves slightly from thechain-belt. It isconnected at its lower end to the guideway and at its upper end it isconnected to and supported by the top of the magazine M, between whichplaces of connection the teeth depart from a straight upward courseofmovement as the chain-belt passes onto the upper sprocket-wheel. Theballs, if they already have not fallen off the teeth, will be combed oflby member 37 as the teeth withdraw therefrom.

During upward movement in the guideway, each ball engages and operatescertain devices that are arranged to cause actuation of registeringmechanisms and that extend into the guideway through a slot 38 in theside opposite to the chain-belt. One of these devices is a rotary memberor star-wheel 39, the arms or teeth of which are so proportioned andspaced that one of them always extends into the guideway in a positionto be engaged by a ball, whereby the wheel is given a turn as the ballmoves upwardly.

Another of these devices is an electric c1rcuit-closer that includes apivoted arm 40,

having on its free end a projection, such as a roller 41, which iscapable of extending through the slot 38 into the path of the balls inthe guideway. The arm 40 has thereon an extension 42 projectingoppositely from the roller 41. This extension has an,insulated end incontact with aterminal 43 of.

an electric circuit, which is pivotally mounted at one end and normallyheld out of contact with another terminal 44 of the same circuit by aspring 45. The spring, through the instrumentality of the pivotedterminal,

operates to keep the roller 41 normally in the path of the balls in theguideway. When an upwardly-moving ball contacts with the roller, theroller is pushed outwardlv of the guideway, the pivoted arm thereby isgiven a swinging. movement, and the pivoted terminal 43 thereby iscaused to contact with the fixed terminal 44, wherebythe circuit isclosed. As soon as the ballpasses from contact with the roller, the arm.40 and the roller thereon are returned to normal position by spring 45and the circuit is opened.

The bifurcated teeth of the chain-belt are so formed that they straddlethe arms ofthe star-wheel and the roller of the circuit-closer duringtheir movement in the guideway, and, therefore, they do not ofthemselves contact with and move those parts, movement 'there-. of onlybeing imparted when there is a'ball on a tooth.

In the grand-totalizer machine, there are ball-holding magazines, one ormore for all the magazines of the several primary or 10- cal machines oflike value in the system, and each of the grand-totalizer magazines hasassociated therewith ball-releasing devices connected by conductors 46with the terminals 43 and 44 pertaining to magazines of like value inthe primary machines. Thus,

for example, when the circuit-closer of any forty-unit magazine, asassumed to be shown at the left of Fig. 1, is moved to close the circuitat terminals 43 and 44, a ball of corresponding amount is dropped intothe hopper 0f the grand-totalizer machine, after which it is moved tocause registration and addition of that amount by means like that of aprimary machine, such means as applied to the grand totalizer beingexemplified in a primary machine and, therefore, it being unnecessary toduplicate its illustration and to repeat a description thereof.

In the diagrammatic outline of the system shown by Fig. 12, there arethree primary machines, each having, among other magazines, one offorty-unit amount as typified at the left of'Fig. 1 and one ofonehundred-unit amount as typified at the right of that figure; and,therefore, there would be under the forty-unit magazine of the grandtotalizer three channels whence balls are dropped and each controlled bya fortyunit magazine of the primary machine, and under theone-hundred-unit magazine a like number of channels whence balls aredropped and each controlled by a one-hundred-unit magazine of theprimarymachine, and the grand totalizer would contain other similarparts and associated mechanisms for the other amounts or units of theprimary machines. In practice, probably there would be a greater numberof primary machines connected with and causing registrations in thegrand totalizer, and sometimes possibly it would be necessary to providemore than one magazine of like value in a grand totalizer to accommodateall the circuit-closers of that value in the primary machines.

WVhile the ball-dropping-arrangements of the grand totalizer may besimilar to those shown by Fig. 1 in a primary machine, for the purposeof illustrating a somewhat different ball-dropping arrangement that maybe applied either to a primary or grandtotalizer machine to accommodate,respectively, a larger number of station circuitclosers orprimary-machine circuit-closers of the same value, there is shown byFigs. 7

and 8 another form of ball-dropping mechanism as.adapted to a grandtotalizer. In this form, the ball-containing chanhels 20 are arranged ina plurality of series under the magazine and above the hop er, and eachchannel in a manner similar to the showing of Fig. 1 has pivotedadjacent thereto the latch rock-shaft 23, carrying the release-arm 24,the stop-arm 30, and the op- ,erating-arm 28. However, in order that thechannels may be placed closer together, the coils, instead of beinglocated each adjacent to a channel, are disposed at the ends of theseries of channels. Thus. for every latch there is a coil 22 havingtherein the longitudinally-movable core 29 arranged to be moved when thecoil is energized and connected by a rod or link 47 with the latchopcrating-arm, whereby the rock-shaft is turned and the release and stoparms thereof operated as in the previously-described form. A spring 27returns the parts to normal position.

It may be assumed, for purposes of explanation, that the ball-droppingarrangement shown by Figs. 7 and 8 pertains to forty-unit magazines ofthe primary machines, and that each coil thereof is connected byconductors 46 emanating from the forty-unit terminals of the primarymachines. Therefore, when the circuit is closed at terminals 43 and 44by movement of a circuit-closer as at the left of Fig. 1, a ball ofcorresponding amount will be caused to be dropped into the hopper oflike value of the grand totalizer and that value caused to be registeredtherein; and in the same manner balls will be caused to be dropped bythe circuit-closers of. other primary machines in the same hopper ordifferent hoppers'of the grand totalizer, in' accordance with the amountto which they pertain.

The teeth of all chain-belts a primary machine and ma grand-totalizermachine are so relatively arranged that only one of them in a singlemachine reaches position to cause a ball thereon to operate mechanismthereof at the same time, in order that there may be avoidedsimultaneous movement of the ball-engaging star-wheels and a consequentunder registration in the registering mechanism now to be described.

Adjacent to every star-wheel 39 there 1s a gear 48 mounted to be rotatedby I the star-wheel, and these wheels and gears may be supported in anysuitable manner, as on a shaft 49 extending along the series ofguideways 34. The gears 48 on one side of the machine are in mesh withpinions 50 and those of the series on the other side are in mesh withpinions 51, the two serles of pinions, respectively, being looselymounted on arbors 52 and 53, at the ends of which,

respectively, are dials 52 and 58 carrying each representing aforty-unit amount, that the turning of arbor 52 a complete rotationcauses the dial 52 thereon to indicate one hundred units, and that therelative proportions of the gear and pinion in association with thefive-arm star-wheel of that magazine is such that a complete rotation ofthe star-wheel will give two complete rotations of the arbor, then fivefortyunit balls successively moving upwardly in the guideway will causeregistration of two hundred units; and assuming that the magazine nextbeyond is of twenty-unit value, I

\ chine, for purposes of explanation, may be v with.

star-wheels with overthrow devices.

assumed to pertain to a one-hundred-unit amount, and a ball from themagazine shown on that side of Fig. ,1 on engagement with the star-wheelmay cause a sufficient turn'in the arbor to cause registration of onehundred units by the dial 53; and the other sets of star-wheels, gears,and pinions on that side would be of such proportions as to cause asufficient rotary movement of arbor53 and-dial 53 to register therespective amounts to which their magazines pertain.

Adjacent to each of the pinions and 51 there is fast on its arbor anannular rack 54, inengagement with which pivoted pawls 55 are held bysprings 56, the pawls and springs being carried by a disk 57 fast to thepinion. The arrangement is such that, when a pinion is given rotarymotion by a gear in mesh therewith, rotary motion will be imparted tothe arbor through the instrumentality of the rack and pawls, and

the racks and pawls of the other pinions will permit the arbor to turnwithout rotating those pinions and the gears in mesh there- The tendencvto rotary motion that pinions on an arbor may have as a result offriction during movement of pawls on the racks and rotation of the arborin the gears .will be overcome by contact of the arms of the Each ofthese devices comprises an arm 58 pivoted on the frame of the machineand having at its free end a roller 59, which is held normally in theannular path of movement of the end portions of the star-wheel arms by aspring 60. lVhen a star-wheel isgiven a turning movement by anupwardly-moving ball in its guideway, the roller 59 is moved by contactof a star-Wheel arm therewith so that the arm can pass, and then it isreturned quickly to normal position where it will be contacted bythenext arm of the wheel and further rotary movement from frictional ormomentum influence prevented. It will be seen also that the overthrowdevice is so disposed that it will prevent rex'erse movements of theparts with which it is associated. No more than one gear 48 is givenrotary movement at a time in a single machine, because of the diversearrangement of the teeth of the several chainbelts previously explained;and, therefore, there will be no tendency to give rotary motion to morethan one pinion and arbor of the machine at one time, whereby underregistration is avoided.

In order that, when the dial 52' on the arbor 52, which may beconsidered as pertaining to the lowest decimal. place of the series .ofdigits displayed by the dials, has registered the greatest amount ofwhich it is capable, that amount may be caused to be registered on thedial 53 of the next arbor on the turning of dial 52 to zero position,the arbor 52 has fast thereon a tooth or other projection 61, which maybe carried by a disk 62 secured to the arbor. The tooth 61 is sopositioned that it will engage a tooth of and turn a pinion 63 loose onarbor 53 at the time the ,dial 52 is moved from its highest indicatingposition to zero. Rotary movement is imparted to arbor 53 by pinion 63through the instrumentality of pawls 64 thereon kept by springs 65 inengagement with an annular rack 66 fast on the arbor.. The pinion 53being loose on its arbor, the pawl and rack arrangement permits' thearbor to turn independently there of when rotary motion is impartedthereto by a pinion 51.

In order to prevent the pinion 63 from being turned otherwise than byengagement therewith of the tooth 61, as by friction be tween it and thearbor 53, brake bands or rings 67 and 68,. respectively, are secured tothe disk 62 and the gear 63. A shoe,-having a friction-sole 69 incontact with ring 68 and an anti-friction roller 69' in contact withring 67, is carried by a standard 70,

which may be pivoted on a frame member of the machine as shown, or whichmay be of spring material, in either case so that the shoe may becapable of slight movement 1n order that it may adjust itself to contactwith both rings and be held in such contact by oppositely-exertingpressure of the rings themselves. Ring 67 is reduced in thickness for aportion of exterior periphery, as between the places 'pp, Fig. 9, wherethe roller 69 contacts with the shoe during the period that the tooth 61is in engagement with a tooth of and is turning pinion 63, so that thepressure of the sole on the ring 68 is lessened during that period andthe pinion left more free to turn.

After the dial 53 has registered the greatest amount that it is capableof indicating and during movement of the dial to zero position, thearbor 53'imparts registering movement, through the instrumentality of adisk 71 fast thereon and a tooth 72. on the disk, to a pinion 73 and adial 74L on ashaft 74, this dial pertaining to the next greater decimalplace of theseries of digits indicated by the dials. Overthrow of thedial 74: is prevented by. a brake-shoe 75 in frictional contact withbrake'bands or rings 76 and 77 carried, respectively, by the disk 71 andthe pinion 73; and either ring 76 and 77, or both of them, may bereduced in thickness at its exterior periphery, as between the places gshown in ring 77, Fig. 9, where the ring contacts with the shoe duringthe period that the tooth 72 is in engagement with a tooth of and isturn ing pinion 73, so that the pressure of the shoe on the rings islessened during that period and the pinion left more free to turn. Inthe series there'may be other dials, as

those designatedby 7S and-79 carried by' shafts 78 and 7 9, to thenumber of decimal places that the demands on the machine may require tobe shown, and movement may be imparted to and retarded in those dials byparts similar to those last eX- plained.

While the primary machine shown by Fig. 1 has been referred to indescribing the registering mechanism, it is to be understood thatsimilar registering mechanisms are embodied in other primary machinesand in the grand-totallzer machine. The reglsterlng mechanlsm of thegrand-totalizer machine in its essential characteristics is like that ofa primary machine, except that it is unnecessary to include therein thecircuit-closer, unless it is desired to have the totalizer causeactuation in still another machine.

way having a discharge end terminating in said magazine and having areceiving end, means whereby said elements are delivered in series fromsaid magazine to the receiving end of said guideway, a device wherebysaid elements are moved individually through said guideway from thereceiving end to the discharge end and returned to said magazine, and aregister-actuating device arranged to be actuated by said ele mentsduring their traverse of said guideway.

2. In a register, a magazine arranged to hold amount-representingelements, a hopper, means whereby said elements are deliveredindividually from said magazine to said hopper, a chute arranged toreceive said elements in series from said hopper, a guideway having areceiving end to which said chute delivers said elements and having adischarge end terminating in said magazine, a device whereby saidelements are moved individually through said guideway from the receivingend to the discharge end and returned to said magazine, and a registeractuating device arranged to be actuated by said elements during theirtraverse of said guideway.

- and by which it is actuated, a part on said belt arranged to move saidelements individually through said guide way, and a register actuatingdevice arranged to be actuated by said elements during their traverse ofsaid guideway. In testimony whereof I allix my signature in presence oftwo witnesses.

HENRY A. HENTRICHS. Witnesses:

T. A. MOCALL, F. F. FOWLER.

